Battery life is the biggie. It’s now unusual to get an old-school NiMH battery that runs out in less than two weeks and takes most of a day to charge, but they still exist. More modern lithium-ion batteries will give you two to four weeks of brushing – or more – without a recharge, and will take anywhere between three and 12 hours to reach full capacity. As for the brush itself, it feels and works much like a mid-range Sonicare toothbrush. It has four brushing modes designed for cleaning, whiting, sensitive teeth and a gum massage, and a nice, slim handle with a grippy, rubber feel. It switches itself off when the usual two-minute brush is done, and pulses every 30 seconds during use to remind you to brush another quarter of your mouth. Battery life, meanwhile, is brilliant, with enough charge to get you through a good month of brushing before recharging via USB. A great electric toothbrush for not a lot of money, even without the subscription plans. Be sure you’re charging for the full time noted in the manual. For iO series as of 7 it takes 3 hours. For iO 6, Genius and Smart range and Pro 3 it takes 12 hours. For our Vitality toothbrushes, that’s 16 hours. For the other brushes, they should be charged for up to 24 hours. The best electric toothbrushes are clinically proven to do a better job than the manual brushes of old and should be part of everyone’s everyday dental routine. After all, we would all like squeaky clean teeth and a whiter smile – and absolutely no-one enjoys fillings or root canal surgery. All our toothbrushes apart from the Vitality and PRO 500 have a charging light. It should blink green during charging. Note that this can take up to 15 minutes to start happening if the toothbrush was entirely drained of battery during brushing. When charging is complete, the blinking should stop.

Electric toothbrushes are clinically proven to be superior to manual toothbrushes, providing benefits in removing more plaque for cleaner teeth and healthier gums. Oral-Belectric toothbrushes remove up to 100% more plaque than a regular manual brush, which is why they are recommended by UK dentists and hygienists. Oral-B electric rechargeable toothbrushes (from Pro 600 model upwards) also whiten teeth starting from day one by removing surface stains. Electric toothbrushes are suitable from ages 3+, with specific kids electric toothbrush models available, and are gentle on gums and suitable for sensitive teeth. Electric rechargeable toothbrushes come with replacement toothbrush heads, which should be replaced every three months. Protect your gum line from overbrushing with pressure sensors that inform you when brushing too hard, too light, or just right. Ordo electric toothbrushes boast Sonic Pulse technology with 40,000 pulses per minute that not only cleanses the surface of your teeth but deep cleans them as well. Not only this, but they also come with more than 3 weeks of battery life and a smart 2-minute timer. Whether you're looking for a men's range or a women's, we've got it all.

Confused by Oral-B’s sprawling range of toothbrushes? Well we’ve picked out the best of the brand’s brushes for every need and budget

It’s basic, with just one setting, but you do get a timer, with the brush pulsing every 30 seconds and switching itself off after two minutes. We also like the unusual pink, blue and yellow colour choices. READ NEXT: The best electric toothbrushes to buy Are all Oral-B brushes compatible with the same brush heads? What’s more, it delivers an excellent clean, with three modes – Sensitive, Daily Clean and Whitening – that take you all the way from a softer brush that’s easy on the gums to a more intense polish that should help get rid of staining. Battery life, meanwhile, is exceptional; you will easily get through two weeks of brushing and probably three without a recharge. It’s the new king of sensibly priced brushes. Otherwise, it has the same tech and the same key strengths as the iO Series 6 and iO Series 9, giving you a smoother brush with less vibration than the older Genius models, yet still delivering an excellent ‘fresh from the dentists’ clean. You also get the same pressure sensor and timer, the same two weeks plus battery life, and the same OLED display and app-connected features. Given that the differences between this brush and the Series 9 are minor, the Series 8 makes a pretty strong case for itself as the best Oral-B brush to buy. Battery life is also solid for a budget brush, while it takes just four hours for a recharge. Most importantly, though, this is a big step up in cleaning from manual brushes or cheaper battery models, and you can kit out the whole family without breaking the bank.

Up to a point. Oral-B’s CrossAction, FlossAction, Precision Clean, Sensi and 3D White brush heads work across brushes in the Vitality, Pro, Smart and Genius lines, but iO Series brushes have their own specific Ultimate Clean and Gentle Care heads. What features are worth paying extra for? To assess battery life, we leave the toothbrush running while standing up and time how long it takes for the battery to run down. We then divide this figure by the four minutes per day brushing recommended by dentists to get an accurate idea of how many days and weeks a single charge should last.If you want to save some money, you’re not restricted to the manufacturer’s own heads. A few smaller, third-party manufacturers make Sonicare- or Oral-B-compatible brush heads, which usually sell for much less than the real deal. Philips and Oral-B will tell you that you’re not getting the same quality or clean from these cheaper heads, but in our tests some have been perfectly effective. Oral-B is the biggest brand for electric toothbrushes in the UK, but that doesn’t make it any easier to decide on a specific brush to buy. The manufacturer has several different ranges serving different customers and price points, and you’ll often find its older models being sold in chemists or supermarkets alongside its newest lines. To make things harder, prices fluctuate like crazy, so you’ll find brushes at half price at certain times of year, or new, mid-range brushes selling for less than budget brushes if you happen to catch them in a sale. Does it deliver as good a clean as the more expensive Sonicare models? Maybe not. Even when you move beyond its Soft and Gum Care modes for the White and Polish options, you don’t quite get the power of a mid-range Philips brush, not to mention alternatives from Oclean or Ordo. However, your teeth feel clean after brushing and the Gum Care mode gives your gums a decent massage, while the Soft mode is ideal for first-time electric toothbrush users or those with sensitive gums. Smart Series: The Smart series builds on the Pro series with Bluetooth connectivity and basic smart features. Some models are quite old now, but still effective.

Kids/Junior series: Variations of the Vitality, Pro and Smart Series brushes aimed at kids and teens. Often slightly smaller and featuring favourite characters or more colourful designs. Not everyone wants the bother of an app-enhanced dental routine, so if you’d rather spend a little less but still get a great toothbrush, then the iO Series 3 could be for you. It delivers the same magnetic drive technology as the other brushes in Oral-B’s flagship iO-Series range, but comes without the advanced sensors and Bluetooth connectivity to monitor your brushing and send the data to your smartphone. In practice, that means a quieter brush with a more comfortable vibration, and one that still leaves your incisors feeling polished and your molars super-clean, as well as doing a fantastic job of clearing plaque from between your teeth. The other big plus with the iO Series 9 is charging. You get not only two weeks’ worth of charge in just under three hours, but also a slimline travel case that allows you to charge the brush while in-situ. While it’s due to be superseded by the new iO Series 10, this is not just the best Oral-B toothbrush, but the best electric toothbrush you can buy. An electric toothbrush can remove up to 100% more plaque than a manual brush helping to prevent early gum issues. The best electric toothbrushes you can buy in 2023 1. Oral-B Vitality Pro: Best cheap electric toothbrushThe Genius 8000 launched as a cut-down, value version of the original Genius 9000 brush, and it still feels like a high-end toothbrush despite its price. It also gives an excellent clean, with a choice of six brush modes and three brush heads – CrossAction, 3D White and Sensitive – to cover a wide range of dental needs. Its Lithium-Ion battery still needs charging overnight but will last for over an hour of brushing from there on in, which should cover you for a couple of weeks. With our Vitality and PRO toothbrushes, it can sometimes be difficult to know when they’re correctly switched off. If they’re on the charger while switched on, they won’t charge correctly. The best thing to do is to put it on the charger for 30 minutes or so, and then try to switch it on. If it switches on, that’s great, and it was correctly switched off while charging. However, if doesn’t switch on, that might mean that it wasn’t switched off during charging.

Otherwise, it’s worth looking out for pressure sensors that can warn you when you’re pressing too hard while brushing – or not hard enough. Plus, a brushing timer that sends a pulse through the brush when it’s time to stop brushing (usually two minutes), or time to move to another quadrant of your mouth (roughly every 30 seconds). The best Oral-B electric toothbrushes to buy in 2023 1. Oral-B Vitality Pro: Best cheap Oral-B electric toothbrush The One doesn’t have the brushing power of a larger Sonicare brush, but it’s ahead of other battery-powered electric toothbrushes and does a great job of leaving your teeth feeling shiny and clean. The relatively gentle movement is also brilliant for massaging along the gumline.However, finding the best toothbrush for you can be a minefield. Not only do all the toothbrushes look nigh-on identical, but the manufacturers seem to have decided that confusion is good for business, producing several different ranges with different characteristics all at the same time. It’s hard to distinguish between so many similar products, while the boxes and adverts bombard you with pseudo-science and marketing-speak.